It appears that right wing hatemongers have upped the ante in their smear campaign against Muslims:

Self-described “anti-jihadist” and conservative blogger Pamela Geller — the executive director of Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) — has joined the chorus of right-wing paranoia. Earlier this month on MSNBC, Geller suggested the Islamic center is a “triumphal mosque” on “conquered lands.” Now her organization has recently launched a series of bus ads reading, “Fatwa on your head? Is your family or community threatening you? Leaving Islam? Got questions? Get answers!” in major cities, including San Francisco, Miami, and New York

The fact that this kind of hatred is so openly prevalent is a sad testimony to the state of American society. I am reminded of the popularity of the Ku Klux Klan in the US during 1920s, or the anti-semitic radio broadcasts of Charles Coughlin in the 1930s. We like to think that we have moved beyond that sort of bigotry in this country, but clearly we have not.

1 comments:

This is sad indeed. I mourn for the American ideals that we hold dear. Human dignity and decency seem to be the first things that go in times of crisis. Unfortunately, our tribal instinct is built into our evolutionary history. We respond to treats with hostility, fear and hatred. This is a hard virus to fight. Perhaps, tribalism is what the 'new atheists' should be attacking, not religion. Religion might be man-made, but tribalism is written in our human nature. When properly directed (to liberate the oppressed for example), religious impulses could be the most wonderful things in the world. What we should do is to help people see that life is not a zero-sum game, not burning books, ethnic cleansing, or demonize a group of people. When we give to our hatred, we only make things worse.